The availability of various new information products is even faster as time evolves. In response, people have an increasing demand to the features and quality of the information products (e.g., particularly portable computers). Thus, whether portable computers (e.g., notebook computers) produced by an electronic company in the future can provide more convenient and powerful features will be an indicator to decide whether manufacturing technology of the electronic company is more advanced than other competitive ones.
The trend of developing notebook computers is slimness, compactness, and lightweight in consideration of weight and size. Moreover, an all-in-one notebook computer is constantly being sought. Nowadays, the all-in-one notebook computers are dominant type of portable computers. Newly developed notebook computers in the years of 2003 and 2004 have a thickness of about 1 inch. Such ultra thin construction is the trend of notebook computers. Also, competition is very fierce. The battery layouts of notebook computer produced by major computer manufactures are almost the same. For example, six (6) 18650 type cylindrical lithium cells are mounted in PCG-Z1/P notebook computer available by SONY, T40 notebook computer available by IBM, or X10 notebook computer available by SAMSUNG. Note that 18650 means the cylindrical cell has a diameter of 18 mm and a height of 65 mm. Also, the battery compartment is provided at the rear side of notebook computer.
However, neither powerful Centrino notebook computers having a thickness of about 1 inch available by SONY or SAMSUNG nor notebook computers available by TOSHIBA or HP is allowed to couple to an exchangeable docking device. This is because there is interference between two mechanisms as designed. This, however, may bring inconvenience in use and cause trouble to user. In a case of a notebook computer used in home, it is required to couple connectors of power cord, mouse, network adaptor, audio video (AV) adaptor, etc to some or all ports or sockets of the notebook computer. To the contrary, a user has to disconnect all connectors coupled to the notebook computer and then couple a battery module to the notebook computer prior to carrying it for travel. After returning home, the user has to disconnect the battery module and then couple all previously coupled components to the ports or sockets prior to using the notebook computer. In view of the above, the tedious operation of coupling and disconnecting the connectors can bring great inconvenience in use and cause trouble to user. Further, it is time consuming. Obviously, it contradicts the trend and is not acceptable to vast consumers. Hence, a need for improvement exists.